


the courage or the fall

by imaginedecember



Series: electric dreams [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - GTA, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-01 04:32:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2759735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginedecember/pseuds/imaginedecember
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He was the sun and the older male was the darkness. The world could not have one without the other. “This is what you were meant for.” And Geoff could not have been more right.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. zero

**Author's Note:**

> **_You must read the prequel to this or nothing will make sense_**.
> 
> Chapter title: The Courage or the Fall by Civil Twilight
> 
> Explanation of rating: There is major character death in this story but it is not explicit in any way. 
> 
> Special dedication: This story and its prequel are all because of the people who took time to give kudos, bookmark it, follow it and leave comments. You all have beautiful souls and you will forever remain in my heart. Stay happy and stay gold, lovelies <3.

They whispered about a man in a mask that had no heart. The angel of death had made its home in the hollow pit inside his chest. The shadows called him father and the darkness called his fading soul its home. They did not, however, whisper about the sun that was slicing the mask in half. They did not, however, whisper about the morning light that was digging itself in, worming its way around that hollow pit until his chest was burning. Caught asunder. A sweet whisper of an exploding flame. His sweet love, his angel of the sun, made a crown of gold, gathered a bouquet of roses in its charred fingers and set them inside the pit until the darkness receded. And the man stood, freed from his chains but still scarred by the angel he once called friend.

Darkness will always fester. But where there’s sun, there’s hope. 

Where there’s light, there’s a beginning. 

But most importantly, there’s an end.


	2. introductions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geoff remembers how it began.

The similarities between Geoff and the members of his crew were put in front of him in stark contrast. 

Because the angel of death had seen each of their souls. 

But Geoff was the first. 

***

Geoff’s family was one of rebels. Ah, the Ramsey’s, always known for creating trouble. 

But they always seemed to fall as a result of their own foolishness. His mother was a drunk. She drank herself to death. His father was a mad man and blood made him thirsty. He spilled too much and a lone bullet from an officer’s gun missed its mark and hit his heart. 

Good riddance to them. 

But Geoff still missed them somehow. 

And the angel of death seemed to like the taste of his pain. 

When Geoff left a broken home at seventeen after the deaths of his parents, he tried to forget about Los Santos. He hopped trains and took rides from strangers. He killed people who got in his way or who were just plain rotten. He stole money, food or anything he felt like taking. 

He was an outlaw of sorts, a rebel. He was living the Ramsey name, that was for sure. Just without all of the added madness (he didn’t think of himself as crazy - he just thought he was living - running). 

The angel of death had latched on to him throughout his mad trek across America. It was a whisper in his ear when he went down to a fitful sleep. It was a sweet whimper against his neck when he shot someone down or stabbed them into the ground. And a cry when the angel gathered their soul up into its hands and sent them skyward. 

He thought he had finally caught the Ramsey curse. Almost everyone in his family had mental problems, most of them proclaimed to hear voices. And he was somewhat right because the angel of death finally explained it to him as this. 

The angel of death followed families that were bathed in darkness. And the Ramsey family was like a fine course meal. Every person had shadows on their souls. If its energy ever got low, the angel of death would feed on them for a bit before retuning to its tasks. And Geoff didn’t see it as robbing or even weird because what else were the Ramsey family good for except food for the angel of death? 

So, all in all, Geoff liked the whole angel of death thing. It was nice to have a friend on his joyride. But it wasn’t until he reached the East Coast that the angel had been speaking tales like a mad person. Geoff thought he was imagining the stories but they were quickly becoming all too real. He decided to listen to it and put all of them together. 

There were several people in these stories. Some bearded, bear-like dude named Jack. A lanky British fuck named Gavin whose stupidity alone would be the result of a mass murder. An angry kid named Michael (who the angel rarely ever spoke of - the way it said his name almost made it sound like a warning).

The son of a mob boss named Ray (and wasn’t that weird? - from one criminal family to another). And, finally, a masked mad man with a sweet side (he didn’t understand how that was possible - who even wore fucking masks?) named Ryan or James. The angel wasn’t sure which. A man of many names, presumably. 

All of the tales were vague. The angel just told him when they were gonna show up in his life and how. Geoff was just to sit, listen and remember it. 

He thought the angel was full of shit until he met Jack exactly the way the angel prescribed it. He didn’t think the angel of death could be a prophet in disguise but he was all too wrong. 

From then on, Jack became his friend. And Geoff really didn’t think the word ‘friend’ was in the Ramsey dictionary. But here he was. The angel remained with him, too. 

And it was during a very hard night (on the eve of their deaths) that Geoff drank a bit too much and spilled the name of the angel of death. Jack just thought he was saying his mother’s name. So, it was good that nothing came of it and Jack never mentioned it. He remained in the dark and Geoff kept it that way. It wasn’t that he was one for keeping secrets but there were some things that were better left unsaid. He didn’t want someone as angelic as Jack to get sucked into the darkness he spun. 

But everything was quickly spiraling out of control. The angel of death had left his side, only saying that some events were gonna change things around and somehow pertain to the other people he was supposed to meet. Geoff just let the angel go and moved on. 

But the angel came back to him after he met everyone in its tales for the first time. 

The angel was a different person now, a different vessel. Her name and voice was familiar to him. He had heard her name a countless number of times on the news. He knew before the angel even spoke that things were going to end badly. 

The future that she painted for him was bleak and dark. 

And he hung his head and cried for the first time in what felt like decades. Because he didn’t want it to end this way. 

But Ray’s father didn’t understand that the angel of death ran Los Santos. It was its home. Just like how the rebels and criminals were attracted to it and rarely ever left. 

And there was no foreseeable way that the angel of death would give up its powers over the city and its vessel. Ray’s father would just have to deal with the crumbling of his life and his hold over the city. 

In the end, the angel of death held power over all of them. 

And like soldiers running into battle, they’ll fall. 

One by one.

But Geoff wasn’t gonna stand for it to end like that.

On the roof, looking over the city, he stretched out his arms and smiled to himself. 

The keepers of life and death were in his hands and he practically salivated at the thought of what he was crew was gonna be capable of. 

They were going to be safe from pain. Never again were they going to be stepped on. Never again were they going to be underestimated. 

No, they were going to be _immortals_.


	3. a million little pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ray and Michael find a way to move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: A Million Little Pieces by Placebo

They were in Ray’s apartment. He didn’t have much when it came to valuables so he didn’t care if the kitchen got ravaged, didn’t care if nothing was left. 

They were boxing. Each of them took five hits before trying again. Their boxing gloves had been shoved on hastily and they knew their knuckles were going to be stinging afterwards. But they didn’t care about that. They cared about getting a hit in, in ending everything. 

“I fucking…” Ray panted, gathering up the spit in his mouth and shooting a wad on to the living room carpet. He held up his arms once again, getting his foothold back as Michael took shots against his gloves. “I don’t know if I can forget this, you know?”

Michael’s face was wrought and torn with tension. With each hit, he got weaker and weaker. His arms were trembling. And on that last fifth hit, he stepped a foot back and let his arms swing uselessly at his side.

Wiping at his mouth, Ray watched as Michael fell to his knees in front of him.

“You should burn me alive.” He looked like a soldier as he raised his head, squared his shoulders and set his eyes in a hardened stare. His curls were matted, tangled. Ray hooked a finger in one curl, shaking his head.

“Michael.”

And it was his turn for his face to fall. But he was no solider. He couldn’t carry the weight that Michael had been lifting and struggling with for years. Murder had never been on Ray’s conscience. There was a light in his veins that stopped him every time he tried. He was incapable. And if Ray was to be honest, he’d never call what Michael did murder. It was a lawless accident caused by a rebel without hope. It didn’t do much to cover the scars but it was enough to move on with.

“I forgive you.”

Ray winced as he landed on his knees across from his friend, the one that had meant so many things to him, the one that had despite everything helped him in the darkest of times. It was time he returned the favor.

Slipping his gloves off, he set them aside and grasped Michael’s chin, tilting his head up so he could stare into the whirlwind that was raging inside his mind.

Memories, electrified with its own energy, sizzled between them. 

They were transported back. 

Back to when everything happened. 

***

The world was screaming and it was on fire. There were flames everywhere and Ray couldn’t see beyond the smoke. But a hand was grasping at his arms, pulling him back away from the carnage. 

He didn’t know whose hands they were. He didn’t care.

All he saw was his mother. Her blue eyes, as blue as the sky that she was slipping away to, were wide and hollow. She was on the pavement, caught between collapsed girders and debris from the buildings around here. 

Ray will never forget her eyes, how their stare followed him.

He remembered how they always looked as they ran around in the gardens, in the mountains, in the hills and around the ocean. 

And he will never forget how her voice will never sing to him again. 

And he will never forget the blue bird that she promised him was his as a reminder of her energy and her life and her song (all her own). 

And he will never forget the rose she put there, just for him. 

He’ll always remember her hands, so warm against his cheeks as she promised him with everything that he had that she’d never leave him, that there’ll always be a piece of her somewhere with him. 

Always and forever.

He can still feel her lips, now charred, split and cracked, press against his temple. Promise sealed. 

And as he pushed the stranger away and screamed for them to let go, he felt the pulse of sunshine, warm and heady, in his fingertips. 

He never thought that he’d be the angel of the sun, that he’d be one of the main characters in a fairy tale spoken first by his mother in the garden and again by Ryan in his living room. 

He never though that his mother would be the vessel and that she’d pass it on to him so he could always live, so that he’d never have to die like this, never succumb to the darkness.

She was protecting him. 

And now Ray needed to protect Ryan. 

Give him the light.

Give him life. 

And their crew. He too would do the same. To make sure that they never die, that they never succumb to the darkness, that they never feel pain again.

He didn’t know that Michael was the one pulling him out of the fire, that he was the one that started this ride. 

But that didn’t matter. He couldn’t go back in time and change it. God, he’d never forget. But he could forgive. To keep them both sane, yes, he would forgive.

***

Warmth shot straight into Michael’s veins.

“You…forgive me?”

And they were breathless as Michael kissed his cheeks, his forehead. Ray was giggling as his friend’s heart stuttered back to its true beat, to its original rhythm. 

Ray had given him back his life. 

And he’d do it again and again. 

They would be _immortals_.


	4. the way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter closed.
> 
> But not forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: The Way by Zack Hemsey

“I’ll stand by you.”

Geoff’s words were solemn. But his eyes were fierce. Ryan watched them change colors, watched them widen and narrow. He wondered how he looked reflected back in their gaze. He wondered if his eyes were changing colors too or if they were permanently dark. 

“Geoff.”

Ryan tried to get the older male to change his mind but there was no bargaining a Ramsey. They stood their ground. Ryan both admired that and hated it at the same time. 

He chanced a glance at his angel of a lover, watched him take pot shots with his sniper rifle, watched him smile and laugh with the other boys, watched him live (god, watched him love). 

“I’ll get you. And the rest of them.” Geoff’s mouth ticked as he shoved bullets gingerly into his gun. He checked the count before setting it back on to the ground next to him. 

“Geoff.”

Ryan tried again. But that was all he could say. 

Geoff turned his head. His lips slipped as he reached for Ryan’s forearm, dragging him into a hard hug. Geoff wanted to slap him on the back, tell him good luck (he certainly needed it) but he couldn’t bring himself to be unemotional for once. He couldn’t bring himself to tear away from someone he had known for years before seeing his face and who had become so much like a friend to him. 

Geoff didn’t think he was capable. He was a Ramsey damn it and he didn’t make friends. But the angel of death was sweet like that, told him such nice stories of five boys who severely needed him (and, boy, did he need them too). The angel of death was a lier, a cheater and a true angel all in one. It just depended on who took over the vessel. This time around, oh, yes, she was a sweetheart. And she was sticking to them like glue, watching over them. He bet everything he had that she was smiling down at them, proud. He hoped that she still would be at the end.

Geoff’s hands slid down to Ryan’s back, pushing him into his chest and forcing Ryan to keep the hug. He didn’t care how uncomfortable or weird it got. He wasn’t letting go of his crew. 

“What if-?”

It was the first time for confessions and it was the perfect moment. Just them. Silence. But Ryan was struggling. The words were like taffy, all forced up into a ball in his brain. He didn’t know where to begin with the excessive amount of tangles and knots. But Geoff easily forced them out.

“I’m proud of all of my boys, you know? I wake up in the morning and I stand there and watch you fuckers be idiots and I can’t help but swell with love. Every single one of you is damn precious to me.” Pausing, Geoff broke the hug so he could get eye level with the younger male. When those blue eyes snapped up to meet his own, he smiled soft and true as he added, “And you know what I’m proud of you for? You protected us. Multiple times. And you will again.”

A serial killer acting like a savior. 

Who fucking knew that was possible?

But Ryan had done it. He was a man of many sides, of many faces but all of them were shining like beacons. The crew, individually and together, had managed to drag his soul out, dust it off and put it back together again. And Ray. Ray let the sun shine through, let the morning light breathe redemption and resurrection into the cracks. He was newly born, newly made. He could breathe again. Everything worked. Nothing was bogged down and his chest didn’t hurt. His beat was put right. A clock maker’s true work of art. 

Ryan didn’t want to ask Geoff if protecting them this final time was going to end in something terrible for him because to Ryan, it didn’t matter. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter where he ended up because he knew that he had somewhere warm and safe to travel back to. He thought long ago that things like this (friendship and love) were things that a Haywood could never retain again (not after he had already lost it once) but he found it. He had won. 

And Geoff shared the sentiment. Smiling, crooked and lazy, he ruffled the younger male’s hair and took great pleasure in his whining and grumbling. Geoff stood, then, raising the attention of the other members of their crew.

They peered at him, all of their eyes hardening slightly as they realized that they had a battle to win. It was a simple one but its ending wasn’t going to be.

Ryan caught Ray’s eye. He finally smiled at him, a lax kind of smile that was soaked in something so tender and sweet that it was rotting Ray out from the inside. And he loved it. He liked how his heart went numb when he looked at Ryan. He liked how Ryan was practically a golden glow in his life. A halo dirtied by flaws and scars but still shined all the same. 

Ray walked over to him, standing by his side with his sniper rifle in hand. Ryan grabbed his free hand, interlacing their fingers together and squeezing tight. Standing on his tip toes, Ray pressed a light kiss to Ryan’s temple. His breath ghosted across golden hair as Ryan blushed and giggled. So perfect and completely his. Ray couldn’t help it as he practically jumped on the older male, Ryan catching him easily and hiking him up until his legs circled his waist. 

“Let’s get this party started!” Ray exclaimed. 

Everyone’s laughter was contagious and it rang in the air like a bullet going off at the start of a race. 

And as night settled behind them, it was like entering a battle. 

But for Ryan, it felt all too much like the ending of a war.

And the beginning of something beautiful.

***

The mission had gone as swimmingly as a daydream. 

Everyone was in high spirits, hooting and hollering as they hugged and shared the bag of cash that they had managed to knick from a no name convenience store that they would never see again but always remember the street it was on as the title of their first victory as a six man crew. 

They were at the airport hanger, Jack’s helicopter buzzing next to them. The vibrations from the blades thumped beneath their feet as excitement nestled in deep underneath their veins. It was a heady combination and they were high off the sweet smell of victory. 

But Ryan was watching the runway with an intent eye. It was a gaze like a knowing hawk, one who knew who they were watching for. Ray tried to reach for his hand, to pull him back into the group but Geoff placed a single hand on his chest, stopping his advancements. 

Geoff stepped forward into the open, stopping at Ryan’s side. The younger male’s mask glinted in the flickering lights of the airport terminal. Geoff wondered if it was melting, if it was fusing itself to Ryan’s skin (and if it already had). 

“They coming yet?”

The question was pointless.

Squealing tires reverberated throughout the night. Jack rushed to turn off the helicopter, to somehow negate the fact that the rest of them were there too. The three lads around him fell silent, switching their gaze from Jack to the two gents standing in the open in the direct line of fire. 

Ray tried to step forward again but Michael grabbed the back of his shirt. He struggled his hardest but Michael wrapped his arms around him, pulling him until they fell on to the hard pavement below. Neither of them winced as their heartbeats danced like a war drum. 

Geoff stepped back behind Ryan, letting the younger male take the lead. A blacked out van slammed to a stop a few yards in front of him. 

One man stepped out from the passenger side, his voice all too familiar. It was a leaf in the wind, rattling and crunching when her voice, sweet like a treasure, rang in his ears. 

“Give me her, Haywood.”

Squaring his shoulders, Ryan took a single step forward. 

“You wanted her power to get the city. But now you just want her. She’s dead. You can’t get her back.” Ryan’s voice was spun so cruelly that it was like knives to the heart. 

The man before him had never felt anything there for years. It almost made him feel alive but she was whispering to him. And she was there. She was right fucking there but he couldn’t get her back. He couldn’t fucking save her. Not now. And not then. 

It was like everything clicked at once and Ray was crumbling. No, he was fucking screaming. His body thrashed in Michael’s hold. He bit and scratched but Michael wouldn’t yield. 

“Everyone’s alike in a lot of ways, Narvaez,” Geoff spoke. He laid a hand on Ryan’s shoulder, his fingers teasing the rim of the mask. Ryan barely even flinched as Geoff flicked the mask off. It clattered to the ground with a resounding thud. “We’ve all seen people cry in pain. We’ve all seen people die.”

He chanced a glance at his crew. 

Ray was defeated, exhausted as he panted and cried against the crook of Michael’s arm. Michael was barely holding on as he felt the flames lick at his skin again, like a never-ending nightmare. Jack had his arms around Gavin. The boy was so emotionless, his eyes gone dark. His crew. 

They had seen such pain and so many deaths. He didn’t know how to sew all of them together, didn’t know how to make it better. But keeping them all alive and happy was a start. And this wasn’t doing anything for them. It was dragging all of them back to hell. And Geoff needed to end it. 

Hooking his arm underneath Ryan’s chin, he dragged the younger male with him a few steps back. The man in front of them with scars all up and down his face and arms (he had tried so hard to drag her out, to keep her breathing, to keep her smiling, to keep her laughing) took a single step forward to try and stop Geoff but he crumbled on to the ground. He tripped over his misery and found death on the other side. 

“She’s gone,” Ryan managed to grit out. His eyes flickered in the light as a single tear slipped down his cheek. “Who do you have left?”

He didn’t mean to ask it but he wanted to know. How did someone carry on after a tragedy? Ryan had found a few ways to get around it, to find a way to move on. 

The man’s eyes flickered to the side, catching his son’s gaze.

Ray’s lips trembled as he tried to form words but he didn’t think that he’d see this man again. He thought he was dead and gone, had labeled him as nothing. But here he was, begging for his long lost love to come back to him. He bet he’d do the same if he ever lost Ryan.

“I have no one.” And the truth was spat out like a speck of dirt. Ray growled underneath his breath. 

“You did that to yourself,” he murmured but only Michael heard. 

“And you won’t have anyone either.”

The threat didn’t register until men rolled out from the back of the vans. There was sparks and the whizz of rockets. There was the thunderous roar of a grenade and the peppering of bullets and the slice of skin and the splattering of blood. 

But Ryan had prepared for a war. 

Swinging around until Geoff’s hold on his neck slipped, he caught his leader by the back of his shirt, hauling him up and towards safety behind a plane in a hanger behind them. Shoving Geoff behind the plane, he handed him an SMG and headed back into the fog. 

Stepping carefully, he held two pistols up in front of him as he moved in the general location of where their helicopter was. The ground beneath him shook. He ducked but no rocket whizzed past, no grenade rattled to his feet. Furrowing his eyebrows, he followed the vibrations in the ground until they felt like the world would crumble beneath his feet. Taking a chance, he reached his foot out and smiled when it knocked into one of the legs of the chopper. 

Someone had switched on the chopper and he’d certainly have to kiss whoever was smart enough to do that. If Geoff was beside him, he would have been proud of the cunning skills of his crew. 

Shaking his head, though, Ryan returned to his focus, to his end goal. Wiping at his face, he winced when the smoke stung his eyes. Blinking rapidly, he moved around the chopper. 

A yell startled him. A hard body knocked him hard in the chest, slamming his head against the metal surface of the chopper. Bitting his bottom lip hard, Ryan sunk down to the pavement. His head spun. Fog swirled around him. Acrid smoke snuck its way into his lungs. His heart seized up. Until he felt something digging into his side. Searching his pockets, he laughed as he pulled out his mask. Geoff must have stuck it into his pockets at the last minute. He thanked god for the cover it would give him as he slipped on the mask. 

With the weight of the mask, it seemed like the world tilted and shifted. He was stronger, somehow, under its protection, under its spell. Shaking his head gingerly to clear his mind, he focused on the body that had careened into him. Rolling the person over, he heaved out a great sigh of relief when one of the henchman stared up at him with hollow eyes and a sliced smile. 

Standing up, Ryan stepped away from the chopper. He tried to think of places where Jack would take the boys but his mind was loosing track of the situation fast. 

Holding his guns up, he traversed back into the rest of the fog. He caught men in the head and right in the knee caps as he went, all of them landing to the ground with a resounding thud that echoed beautifully with the helicopter blades. He hadn’t had time to count how many men had crawled out of the vans and which ones had rockets, grenades or just guns. But he knew he was taking them down one by one. 

The smoke finally began to clear. Ryan glanced behind him, taking in the distance from him to the chopper and from where he had left Geoff. He assumed that he was back in the middle, right where all of this had started. And he knew that he was right when a frigid barrel butted against his temple. 

The man’s hands were shaky and his gaze was just as wild. Ryan watched him falter and rise, go crazy then mellow out. 

“Narvaez, nice to see you,” Ryan spoke. His tone of voice was unwavering, like a concrete pillar. A leaf was no match. 

“Ryan. James. Or whatever the fuck you are. Just…give me her. Now.” The gun pressed harder. Ryan swore he could feel it leaving a mark, a scar, a permanent indent. He slowed his breathing down and smiled when he could only hear the rush of blood in his ears and the quick panting from the man beside him. 

There were no screaming, no whiz of rockets, no clattering of grenades, no gun shots. It was peaceful here, surrounded by thin veils of smoke. Silence. Ryan did quite enjoy the quiet. He thrived on it. 

“She’s gone.” Ryan tried to keep it simple but he was talking down a mad man. It was like facing who he was and who he could have become in the mirror. It was a gruesome, somber view. 

“She’s there. In you. She’s there. I know it.” The words repeated themselves like a mantra but they weren’t a prayer. 

“She’s gone.” 

Ryan lifted his mask, letting it slide out of his fingertips and clatter against the pavement. When the pop of a bullet resounded in his ear, he felt the angel of death’s presence lift from the hollowed out pit in his chest. 

He heard his angel of the sun scream before a burst of light devoured his soul.

_The crownless again shall be king._

***

Ray didn’t understand his powers, didn’t see the parallels with reality.

He thought it was just some senseless story but as Ryan’s heart throbbed underneath his fingers, he couldn’t help but believe its truth.

Ryan didn’t need to tell him the end of the story because he already knew it. 

God, he was living it.

Life poured from his fingers. 

He was the sun and the older male was the darkness.

The world could not have one without the other. 

“This is what you were meant for.”

And Geoff could not have been more right.

_Immortals._

***

And before Ray went down to sleep for a few minutes that night, a figure from the darkness peered at him. Balls of light floated beside him, their colors red and white. Piercing. Ray thought that he was hallucinating as the balls of light moved to rest beside him. Warm. He allowed a smile to grace his features as tears flowed down his cheeks. The darkness seemed to tremble with him. 

Ray called his name like a song. Wind chimes. Sweet and warm, pooling low and deep like the morning sun. 

 "Ryan."

_Rest, sweetheart. Close your eyes._

He didn’t question nor wonder when his voice crackled through his brain and then into the air.

“I’ll always be with you.” The words swirled around his head like a ghost of a whisper, breathed so sweetly against his cheek, before the puffs of light flickered twice and his eyes fell to the darkness. 

_We’ll never die._  



End file.
